Event-Happy

SirGalahad was back at work in Maargadum Jail at breakfast time today - and before nine I noticed the screen seemed a bit busy. Another knight, wearing a "gang costume" cover, or "bathrobe", was attempting to do a little bit of pet-levelling on my death mask lancer. The poor monster's health was already pretty low, but as usually happens, it switched its attention across to the newcomer, and started to attack him rather than Gal. He soon had to run for his life - luckily the death mask lancer soon gave up the chase, and followed Gal back to the usual position. With just Gal's 46 bare-handed damage, its health soon began to return to normal.

The Last Chaos forum has recently announced the arrival of three new game masters - Embla, Cara, and darasuum, so it rather looks as if Moose and Kali have left us, following the departure of Krash. At least from yesterday's events we know that JediMike and Stratos are still with us. It is certainly sad if we have lost Moose after all this time; Kali started off well but seemed to lose interest, let us hope that these newbies last rather longer. And we have the European team of Valsharyn and Noboru too, both relatively new, of course.

After coffee SirGalahad logged out, just after his horse reached level 22, so that once again RedRyder could accompany Rage to Prokion Temple on Tairen-1. The time there passed peacefully enough, except for the orc soldiers, and by the time the lunch break was looming, Rage was up by 5.26%, 36 guild points and 100 skill points, while RedRyder had moved on by 2.39%, 9 guild points and 99 skill points.

SirGalahad was back in action over lunch, and then it was time for my Cariae cleric Kaerella to have another session - one to get her into level 53, allowing her to learn the first level of Party Heal 2 and start to use her new level 57 wand, which like the previous one is +15. As clerics don't hit particularly hard, and are a bit lacking in attack skills, having a pretty well upgraded weapon is rather important for them.

I did manage to make a party with someone who was registered to begin with, but nobody else joined and he left after about a quarter of an hour - luckily by then another party had formed and I was able to join that one. The session with the akane giants out in Cariae-1's Dratan desert must have lasted a couple of hours, and in all my first, original Kae went up 14.82%, which got her comfortably into level 53, along with 126 skill points, and 1364 pet points. I managed to get all five bloodseals for the new wand - and then back in Randol the new skill only took 150 skill points, as it is just the one level, so I was hardly down on sp at all.

The food break was slightly early, to enable me to be back in time for five o'clock, UK time, when the first of the low-level Mad Monster Spawns was due to begin. Since the low-level versions haven't been too well attended, the GMs cunningly scheduled them for different times from the high-level ones, which also saves them having to split their attention between two locations, with messages at one site confusing people at the other.

The first MMS was on Katar-4, and Memree, my level 31 rogue, found that [GM]OgreKing was already there when she arrived. She did ask him what level was the maximum, as these events are billed as "for low-level players only", but his suggestion of 90 was, I think, a joke.. Anyway, the usual monsters appeared, with salamanders, elite and non-elite sand golems, gnolls, goblin scouts, gnolls, and a whole lot more surrounding us. The battle raged for a while, and then we got our loot.

Next up was the Cariae event, so my very first Last Chaos character, the level 27 rogue Karella (really Kaerella and Keerella are both variants of that name), rode out to the usual location by the lake. As the evening wore on, [GM]OgreKing tended to spawn the monsters well before the starting time, and then just make the announcement for people to come when the time was reached, so I did start to be a rather early arriver, starting things off by myself.

I also got a slight side-track, when I noticed that SirGalahad had been ks'd again. I may have missed some drama there, as someone called Erpiubald had said "HACKER BANNED", so perhaps someone was rushing around level five of the Jail at double speed, and included my poor lancer in his depredations. I hardly think he can have decided that Gal was hacking, the animation for a bare-handed attack is pretty slow.

Next up after Cariae was Sarissa, where my top character was a level 10 healer, Kaerella of course. So, I had to be pretty careful. The monsters were all spawned ready when I arrived, and I tried to keep to the level 14 berserk zombies, which aren't protective, so just come one by one. They move nice and slowly too! I did have a couple of scares, one when I discovered that a low-level type of harpy there was in fact protective, so I got chased by four or five at once - and I also accidentally hit an elite sand golem, which was way out of Kae's class, so had to run until I was out of its range. Still, as well as the loot, including plenty of gold dropped by the mobs, Kae levelled up.

It was a relief to move on to Hatzring, where Kaerella is level 22. I had just enough money to buy her the appropriate shirt and skirt for her level, and then headed out to the lake, where again the monsters were all waiting. At level 22 I had a wider choice of targets, though I still had to be careful.

The Auzura event was scheduled for seven o'clock; this was a server where I had a pretty wide choice of characters at an appropriate level, so for a change I chose Galahad, my level 34 royal knight (or GALAHAD to be exact), and played a MMS as a melee character. It was lucky I had a mount for the horse buffs, and some small health potions, as it wasn't too easy, especially when the goblin scouts and elite goblin scouts came in as a group - but it did make a change, and all went well.

We had an announcement for the Auzura-4 "Storm the Castle" event, while we were busy despatching goblins and gnolls and salamanders - it was strange to have the two events at the same time. True, the STC is designed for fairly high-level characters, but a lot of people have a high-level or two and low-levels as well. When we finished in Juno, I quickly changed over to Rage, my local level 72 rogue, and galloped to the teleporter to get to Merac - so it was a bad moment for BasheR, who hadn't been in touch for many months, it seems, to say "hi", all I could do was say "hi" back...but it's good to know that he is still around, and that his account hasn't expired.

Rage teleported down to the castle, and galloped into the courtyard - and was just in time to assist with the final Fluton in the throne room. And in time to assist with the picking up of the loot back outside afterwards; I noticed that JadaMarie, a healer who used to be in Norcaine, had made the move across too. [GM]Noboru was very generous with the piles of loot, so I did pretty well on that server, all in all.

Katar, Cariae, Sarissa, Hatzring, Auzura, and then Auzura again for the Castle... I very nearly forgot that Tairen was due to have a low-level MMS too, but luckily the announcement came up on SirGalahad's screen, so I dived back in, this time with my level 32 rogue Rage (xRAGEx). As Tairen don't yet get a high-level MMS, this was pretty well attended, but there were plenty of monsters for all...and plenty of loot too.

This being a Wednesday evening, I had a couple of hours away from Last Chaos, which was probably just as well as attending all five high-level MMS events, after the six low-level ones and the brief bit of castle-storming, would have been a bit much. So Katar and Cariae were able to have their events in peace, and at ten taking a level 11 healer to Sarissa's event seemed a little bit over-ambitious.

I did however take my level 22 Kaerella to the Hatzring event, which was one of [GM]JediMike's specials - just the one fairly big wave of monsters, including cave spirits and screaming zombies, and a generous spawning of loot afterwards. Kae managed to keep out of trouble, and without high-level critters wandering in her direction, stayed alive, and got her share of the loot.

Auzura was last on the rota, which seemed a bit unfair as it is supposed to run to more Europe-friendly timing; but at least with Mike's type of MMS things don't last too long, and it was all over, after the cave spirits, zombies etc had been dealt with, by a quarter past eleven...and that included picking up the generous supply of loot. RedRider, my level 26 rogue, had been able to assist in a number of kills, with Snare - she did die once right at the start, being in just the wrong place when the monsters were spawned, but otherwise kept out of trouble.

It is great that the GMs have obviously started to put a bit more effort into these events, not trying to have one person running stuff in multiple locations on multiple servers at the same time, just by some keyboard shortcuts to spawn a pre-set grouping of monsters and with no interaction. Hiring three new GMs, as well as the European-server crew. looks like a good move.

SirGalahad meanwhile had kept hard at work, so that by the end of the evening the horse was two-thirds of the way through level 24.

Three Castle Stormings

SirGalahad seemed to be doing so well last night down in Maargadum jail that I left him to it - and he got almost all of the way through the hours of darkness before finally getting a disconnection, so hist new pony was moved along nicely. I got him back in place before breakfast, with his pony just reaching level 16, and becoming a horse - and he kept going all morning, and onwards, though someone did "ks" him, killing his death mask lancer, over lunch. It always seems such a petty thing to do - there Gal is, bothering nobody, but someone passing by thinks "Oh, I could spoil things for him, what fun", and does the dirty deed...

I didn't have an actual playing session before lunch, as it was time for the Grand Monthly Food Shop, but, once the freezer had been refilled, things were able to get back to normal. It's always good to come back to the computer after about, on this occasion, two-and-a-half hours, and find SirGalahad still faithfully hard at work.

By the time I was ready to start an afternoon session, the horse was comfortably into level 19. So, SirGalahad logged out, and the Discipline Duo, Rage and RedRyder, headed for Prokion Temple on Tairen-1, in their Combat party.

The place, luckily, wasn't too busy, and most people who passed me kept going. Rage was doing the fighting, mainly of orc soldiers but with a few orc fighters, while Red did the loot picking up - and we continued until it was time for the early evening food break. Rage went up by 8.01% and 54 guild points, while RedRyder went up by just 2.39% and 9 guild points - and they got 137 skill points each. So, nothing astonishing, but a useful investment in Red's future prospects.

SirGalahad got back into action after that; I did at one point notice a sorcerer who had decided to share my death mask lancer, and said hi to him. He asked what level my horse was, which was 20 by then, and told me his was level 16. But, as usually happens, the lancer changed its attack across to him before long, and he found that he couldn't take it - so, thoughtfully, he teleported out rather than lure it after him towards the exit.

The main evening session was over on Cariae-1 again with my level 52 cleric, Kaerella. I managed to join a solo party before too long, but it ran out of people before the end of my session, so I had to move on to another. It seems strange to me that people bother to join a solo party and then only stay half an hour, or maybe just ten minutes or less.

Anyway, slogging away on the akane giants and their boss got Kae another 19.26%, plus 1715 pet points and a useful 148 skill points. But I had to log out a little before nine o'clock, as it was almost time for some castle-storming...

I went to the Katar "Storm the Castle" event, with my level 31 rogue Memree; [GM]JediMike was in charge, and waiting for us, and was an active participant throughout. There were only about three of us there when the monsters spawned, but luckily other people soon arrived. Our GM was in rather a talkative mood. "Y'all need help huh? Sarissa and Hatzring finish this quick, cuz they're good - Katar fell off. They never complain either, they're just soldiers - they got heart. Y'all are like the Tin Man. They work together. They got brains. What happened, Katar? Y'all used to be good..."

Well I edited the pep talk slightly, but it seemed to me that, goaded on by [GM]JediMike, Katar did pretty well - and afterwards we got rewarded with Mike's usual generous supplies of loot. Even without armour, he was a useful tank-fighter for us, too. Memree did die once, the area of effect magic attack of the Death Knight is pretty potent at her level, but quickly teleported back from Merac village. Thorny mantises, anubis archers, anubis spear men, dark harpies, hell-otuu... all the usual monsters were there, and we killed them all.

For 9:30 I moved across to Hatzring; I'd taken the precaution earlier of running the local level 22 version of Kaerella down to Merac Castle to get the location onto her memory scroll, so I was just about the first person there. Kae sat down outside the castle, and I did a little blog work - and the next time I looked at the screen, quite a few people had arrived - and [GM]Stratos was sitting next to me in a companionable kind of way.

"Once... I had a son", Startos told us. "He was killed by a Fluton - ate his brains. Since then, I've been killing Flutons. I believe the leader of this attack is a Fluton commander...I've come here to kill him. I hope you will all help me."

"We're all behind you, chief", I exclaimed, caught up in the tragic tale. "Well behind you", I added after a moment...

Kae being a healer and an archer, I wasn't able to do any snaring, but I'm sure the 41 damage she did to the monsters helped us along. Our tide of fighters swept through the castle's courtyards, and no monsters could stand against us for long. Curiously we didn't actually see any Flutons, but there were enough of the usual monsters to keep us busy. There was a pile of loot in the courtyard for us - and then we got a message to hurry to a location outside the castle, where we found a blue dragon to kill. When it was dead, we got another pile of loot, so in all it wasn't as much as JediMike would have given us...but presumably he was busy over on Sarissa.

Auzura followed at ten o'clock, hosted by [GM]JediMike, who had less to say for himself this time. As usual for Auzura I took my level 72 rogue Rage along, so was able to make a more substantial contribution to the attack - though Rage is still rather lower than the top people there. A death knight's magical attack did hurt Rage rather, as did a couple of hell-otuu monsters, like bouncing black leeches, so that quite a few health potions got used, but Rage survived, and all the usual monsters got swiftly killed. And JediMike's rewards at the end, back outside the castle, were suitably generous.

SirGalahad meanwhile had got his third horse into level 21, though of course the server maintenance in the early hours of Wednesday morning, UK time, mean that he can't pull an overnight stint again. The preliminary patch notes are not very inspiring, just mentioning a fix for a glitch with the first personal dungeon, something to stop an "exploit" with the use of weapon and armour covers, and some changes and repairs to quests in Mondshine, which would only effect players at level 145 and above - let us hope that no new glitches sneak in.

A Second Mount on Tairen

It actually took less than an hour for SirGalahad to get his horse up to level 37, which was a slightly awkward length of time. but after coffee the target was reached, and Gal returned to Randol to trade the horse over to Rage, who immediately transformed the horse into a mount. And then, since Gal was carrying a spare pan flute. he went to Lorraine and Jajan, and got himself a brand-new pony.

Kaerella spent almost all her skill points on getting three more skills up to their fifth level - Party Heal is still at level three though. And then, there was no more time for anything on the newer computer, as the lunch break had to start a bit early today. SirGalahad, however, was safely at work down on level five of Maargadum Jail with his death mask lancer friend.

There was no afternoon session, as at last I went out and saw a certain award-winning film, for which special glasses were needed, and in which the US Marines, or a group remarkably reminiscent of them, were the bad guys. Still, Gal kept going, and by the time I got back the pony had reached level 8, with 100% Sympathy.

The evening session began with [GM]Valsharyn's "Mad Monster Spawn" on Auzura-4 - both the main one and a junior one. Strangely enough, while the spire-type marker had been put up at the usual junior MMS spot down by the GHB lake, the coordinates announced for the event were different, putting it over not far from Hunter Dranore and among the little treants, so RedRider rode over there, and found the GM and quite a few people already there.

We got three waves, which seemed identical, with a smaller selection than the usual junior events; mainly elder drakes, desert spiders, and butchers, with some orc sergeants too. Sadly we only got the one loot-spawning at the end, but it did let me pick up 3 skill point boosters, 4 large attack and 1 large defence potions, 2 item drop boosters and 9 tool aids. Things were a little complicated by the GM announcements generally being for the high-level MMS, so that caused a bit of confusion...but as our event hadn't taken long, I was able to teleport over the the regular spot and see if I could lend a hand.

It was dangerous work for a level 26 rogue in not very good armour, and I got quite a few free trips to Randol to respawn after getting killed, by cube guards, blood terrains, and death knights. But I helped, especially with Snare, on a few of the big guys. People were commenting on the lag, and I agree that it was often a bit difficult to move around from that, but we got rid of the current wave, and grabbed our loot, before moving on to the boss wave, with its flutons and patriarch botises, and plenty more. I got very little from the final loot-spawning, perhaps there were just too many of us, but in all over there I got another 3 skill point boosters, 4 large attack and 3 large defence potions, 4 item drop boosters, and 5 tool aids.

It seemed about time Kaerella over on Cariae-1 spent another evening out with the elite akane giant and its surrounding akane giants, so that's what I got up to; there wasn't an available solo party, but before too long someone registered as wanting a party and I was able to recruit them and list us as a solo "party recruiting members". Things seemed a bit quiet this evening; although we were the only party on the list, we only once reached seven members, and got as low as two at one stage.

I did actually have one visitor, a level 33 healer called airiana, who just watched me fighting the akane giants, and was suitably impressed. She was, it seemed, actually looking for the poison mists, so I was able to give her the usual directions - that they are straight south of Prokion temple, but the road takes you rather a long way round to get there.

Kamira kept me waiting, rather, but handily appeared when I was within a few minutes of finishing anyway - so Keerella was able to teleport down and take care of her, for the usual loot but, again, no rare accessory. By then Kae had gone up by 14.83%, plus another 115 skill points and 1303 pet points.

SirGalahad had kept busy with his third pony, which by logging out time should be in level 12 - which can't be bad for its first day. Tomorrow's Auzura-specific events are just a hide and seek and a "Pharaoh's Treasure"... so just two opportunities to ride aimlessly around Juno looking for a GM, or a pile of loot. However, in the evening there are the regular "Storm the Castle" events, with Cariae and Katar at nine in the evening, UK time, then Sarissa and Hatzring half an hour later, and Auzura at ten. So, hopefully some chances to grab some more loot. It's strange that Auzura gets one so soon after [GM]Noboru hosted a special one for Auzura only, but the more such events we get, the better. In theory it ought to be a "Mad Monster Spawn" rather than a "STC" on a Tuesday, but that's close enough.

Sunday is Quiz Day

MistressDomino sold her stuff pretty well overnight, bringing in about 14,000,000 gold, money that I thought would be likely to be very useful when one of my rogues on the Tairen server outgrows that free 30/32 armour set. SirGalahad was able to start work at the usual breakfast-ish time, in Maargadum Jail, and it wasn't much over an hour before his horse reached level 36.

After coffee Rage checked up on Merac, where she hadn't been since reaching level 32, and found there was a quest available - just ferrying some report around between the various local magicians in town, and finally out to the "column of magic". There wasn't any fighting involved, but 11.59% experience was gained from the quest rewards. After that she headed on to Prokion Temple, and was joined by RedRyder. After the rather too generous experience gain last time, we headed for a less ambitious room, with orc soldiers and orc fighters - the room next to the fighters-only one that Red had played in solo, in fact. As well as the fighting, there was some chatting with the sorcerer who was in that soldier room for most of the time, Psycopath, who ended up on both Rage's and Red's Friends list.

By the time lunch was approaching both my rogues had added 126 skill points; Rage had gone up by another 14.65%, and 100 guild points, while RedRyder was up by 4.36% and 23 guild points. So, it was time to switch back to SirGalahad.

According to the website calendar Auzura-4 was due to have its "Storm the Castle" event at three o'clock in the afternoon, UK time, so it seemed a good idea to go on that particular sub-server with my Auzura level 72 version of Rage. As she had got a quest to head for the Forgotten Temple, that's where Rage went, to kill five each of the twin hadians and curd hadians - which was easy enough, once I got in to the place. With Prokion Temple, when teleporting in you sometimes end up in the foundations, so that all you can do is use a return-to-town scroll and then come back and try again. With the Forgotten Temple, also known as the Temple of Forgetfulness, you teleport in okay, but a couple of the possible spawning points are caught up in a cage-like structure, and you can't get free... so you have to use a scroll to return to town, and then come back. For me, it was third time lucky, and I was able to finally hurry off towards the interior.

I went along to the end room and fought some jumping devils, since they, like Rage, are level 72. One of the very few legendary slayers I killed on the way there actually dropped a pair of level 62 boots, which used to be very rare, before reaching level 60 earned one a complete 60/62 set. Rage didn't add much, but even 1.59% plus 7 skill points and 261 pet points was a step in the right direction.

A ten minute warning for the "STC" duly came up just before three, so Rage didn't hurry, killing a few more jumping devils before going back to Dratan, moving to Merac village, and using a memory scroll to go down to Merac Castle. I was in fact the first player to arrive, so said "hi" to [GM]Noboru, and let her know that a good number of people had just been setting out on foot to run down to the Castle. So, luckily, we waited, and soon other people did start to arrive.

The Storming was pretty much the regular type, with thorny mantises, death knights, anubis archers, male assassinbugs, some familiar-looking jumping devils, anubis spear men, hell-otuu, dark harpies - and there was one of the "invisible" dragons in the final courtyard, which some of our people could see and fight, while the rest of us, urged on by the GM, went into the throne room and fought a single fluton.

We finished cleansing the castle with a few minutes to spare, and [GM]Noboru told us that the prizes would be spawned back at the start - it's always useful to know that right away, as people tend to run around aimlessly, not knowing where the goodies will be. So we dashed back out across the bridge, and got ready to pick up the loot as soon as it was unlocked and stopped insisting that it was reserved for someone else.

[GM]Noboru was nicely generous with the hands of protection, hands of bravery, and hands of the guard she spawned, and as soon as we'd stopped dashing from one now-vanished pile to the next, some more piles appeared, so Rage went overweight, mainly due to all the tool aids. And that was the end of that, after half an hour or so.

There was time for Kaerella over on Tairen-1 to have a short session before the food break; after claiming a quest reward or two, there didn't seem time to go to Prokion, so Kae used her NPC scroll to move across to Teleporter Rian, and spent half an hour or so in Velpist Temple, in the room just outside the "torn book of life" one. At level 17 it wasn't as hard as before, and for much of the time I had the "assistance" of a lowish-level knight called likingod (some cynics might call it ks-ing on his part). Well, I wasn't on a pssp or anything, so I wasn't too bothered, and even dropped a +3 knight shield I picked up so that he could have it.

By the end Kaerella had reached level 18, having gone up 129.44% in all, plus 46 skill points and 427 pet points, which were just enough to get Kae's dragon hatchling up to level 3. And I got a good supply of cursed bones, a quest item it can be hard to get enough of.

SirGalahad kept going through the food break - there was one point at which the death mask lancer moved a little too close to the nearest death mask soldier, so that the soldier got involved in the fight too, and did get the horse down a few health points before I saw what was going on. I quickly equipped Gal with his sword, and he killed the soldier before returning to bare-handed sparring with his lancer; by then, the horse was just about halfway through level 36.

Kaerella returned to Prokion Temple and the room with the mummies and single orc soldier, until she reached level twenty - and then, having gone up by 199.76% and added 97 skill points plus 475 pet points, it was time to head back to Randol to grab the new quests, and of course the special healer accessory, the "Holly Neckless of Healer" - oh well, I doubt if I could spell Korean very well either. It adds 16 to intelligence, or "power of the mind", plus 100 to mana, 9 to magical attack, if I use a scepter rather than a bow, and "increase MP recuperative power: 20%".

There had been another "Cluedo" event scheduled for Auzura-4 at 6:30 UK time, but I decided that it wasn't really worth the time it took, so didn't go - which was lucky, as ten minutes after it should have started, an announcement came up that it had had to be cancelled, and that a "hide and seek" event was to replace it.

Doing the various messenger-type quests, plus killing some elder werewolves and drakes for Border Guard Tamon, and fifteen death goddesses just outside the Dratan city gates, added another 63.84%, 67 skill points, and 129 pet points - but then it was time to return to Prokion Temple.

It wasn't a terrifically long session, just 38.35% experience - but SirGalahad, as guild master, did "freeze" Kae's experience gain to 50% at the start, to help her get more skill points per level. And then it was time for the Sunday Quiz.

As usual recently I went to Tairen-2 for that. SirGalahad logged out, and MistressDomino logged in after restarting the game - thanks to all her recent sales, her weight was low enough to get the prizes without any danger of reaching the 150% maximum. A couple of minutes later Kaerella logged out, and after restarting the game, logged back in on Tairen-2. I noticed that Tairen-1 was "congested" when I reached the subserver choices, so the new server isn't doing too badly for players now.

Inside the quiz room, it looked as if there was at least one player trying to run multiple clients, with a number of identical rogues with short nonsense names all clustered together. Someone said they were reporting it on the forum shoutbox, but in fact they got a question wrong and vanished before the prizes started coming. We did lose perhaps half our people as we went along, but Kae and MD emerged victorious. I had the strange sensation, as the quiz progressed, that it wasn't just MD following me around, there were others too, which is a bit flattering.

So, after respawning in Randol, Kae's new goodies and general loot were traded across to MistressDomino, who then logged out to let SirGalahad get back to his favourite death mask lancer. With any luck by log-out time his horse will only need about 90 minutes tomorrow to get to level 37. Kaerella browsed around town a little, and then spotted that a rogue called LoneVamp was selling items at the price she thought they ought to be, on a new server...and that included three platinum super skill pills at 3.5 million each, which is certainly cheaper than any others I've seen on the Tairen server. I switched quickly across to MD, as she had enough money to make the purchase, and she was able to buy those three pssps, so that should help RedRyder along a bit.

A healer called Pascal dropped a few drake eggs and pan flutes near the animal trainer, and MD was among those who managed to grab a couple...but there was soon a small crowd around her hoping she would drop more free stuff, so that her kind gesture was soon over. Actually, Kae had bought a couple of drake eggs at 10,000 gold each earlier, from someone in merchant mode who was asking for quick cash... and then, out when fighting drakes to get three green orbs for a quest, a knight called peterz10s had opened the trade window with her, offering 16,000, and asked for a drake egg - so that was a quick profit and a happy customer.

I had been thinking of just letting Kae use some of her tool aids to farm some green herbs and quality stones until log-out time, but at nine the announcement came up that the US "Happy Hour" (we no longer get a European one in the afternoon) was starting early, with 75% extra skill exp, so Kaerella hurried back to Prokion Temple to get at least 40 minutes of it - and getting the divine shield buff, adding 75 to physical defence, courtesy of the knight nelutzul a few times helped me along.

By the end Kaerella had reached level 22, which is really all she needs at the moment, with a further 63.30% experience, and, over the two most recent sessions, 224 skill points and 758 pet points. The 75% bonus to skill exp did just about "stack" with Elizabeth's Enhancement, I found, so that at level 21 each mummy gave 11,000 skill exp, and the lone orc soldier gave 12,375 skill exp, rising to 13,062 when Kae levelled up.

An Encounter With an Old Friend

I did attempt to give SirGalahad an overnight session again, but he lost two or three hours to a ks-er who came along and killed his death mask lancer. Still, the horse had reached level 35 by breakfast time, so the attempt had been worth it. Gal of course continued until after coffee, but then it was time for Rage and RedRyder to head out to Prokion Temple together.

NightWarrior had acquired some more items he wanted to sell me, so that slightly delayed my start. he'd got four heaven stones, and then he wanted to sell me a couple of skill point boosters and an effort scroll (50% extra skill exp for 10 minutes) for 700,000 gold, which seemed a bit high, but he reckoned that I could sell the spbs at 300,000 each, and the scroll for half that. And indeed MistressDomino did manage to sell the skill point boosters at that price over the lunch break, though I'd tried to raise the price of heaven stones a bit further, to 875,000 gold, and nobody seemed tempted.

The Prokion session brought Rage another 32.76%, and RedRyder 9.76% - they each got 189 skill points. For Red that seems a bit marginal, rather a high experience gain for the skill points added. The place I found, just short of the "corridor room", had a mixture of the level 27 orc fighters and the level 27 orc axemen, perhaps I need to find somewhere with more of the fighters, and maybe a level 23 orc soldier or two, and less axemen...

The afternoon session, for a change, involved a different Rage - not xRAGEx on Tairen-1, but my level 72 rogue RAGE on Auzura-4. She teamed up with my level 62 titan MrChuckNorris, and went out to the Sphinx Fighters and Sphinx Speer Men, and of course the Elite Sphinx Speer Man. As those particular Egyptian-type fighters are level 63 and 64, in a solo party Rage gets very little from them - but bring Chuck onto the scene, and the elite one gives over half a million experience on average, with the non-elites about a third of that. And Rage's skill exp increases too!

The session did come to a slightly early end due to a disconnection, but by then Chuck had gone up 1.81% just from being in the Combat party, while Rage was ahead by 9.83%. They gained 15 skill points each, too. I discovered new quests for both of them, as well, which will take Rage out to the Forgotten Temple, somewhere she has been known to go to farm - while Chuck will need to fight some sphinx types himself, which at his level shouldn't be difficult as long as he avoids getting mobbed.

MistressDomino set up in merchant mode; answering some of the usual questions about how to get and feed pets, and find Jajan, got her a first recruit for her Friends list, a rogue called Masian. This time the 150,000 gold effort scroll did sell, as did five heaven stones at 875,000, plus some large attack potions and physical attack potions, so in all about twelve million got gained. And SirGalahad was back at work in Maargadum Jail, of course, with his horse approaching the halfway mark in level 35.

In the evening I decided that it was time to level up Tairen's Kaerella a bit. She was on level 10, ready to enter the Guardian system, so SirGalahad briefly registered for the scheme, and Kae chose him as her Guardian - after all he does have a 100% record of success with his apprentices, Rage and Red! I'd only recently realised that the new starting scroll a character gets, "Juno NPC Scroll", described as "a scroll that holds the location of NPCs and Monsters in Juno", actually works as an infinitely reusable teleportation scroll - click on any listed NPC, and follow the right buttons, and you move straight to their location. Click on the NPC Teleporter Rian, and you're immediately outside the entrance to Velpist Temple. Click on Elizabeth, and you're standing right next to her to get her buff. Click on Hunter Dranore, south of town, and you're there right away. A great time-saver! It made the quest to kill jaguars for Geres go very quickly, Kae just had to kill them, and once she had the full amount of teeth, she could teleport right to Geres, get the quest reward, and hurry on out to do it all again.

Kaerella got a drake egg as a drop at last, and so was able to go to Lorraine and Jajan for her own hatchling; once the jaguars were finished with, it was time for the usual succession of rooms in the Temple, from wandering zombies on to the ancient and berserk type, and then on to the more dangerous room with a few berserk zombies, but also the more protective corpse rangers and skeleton soldiers.

Kae had reach level 16 a little before nine when an announcement came up for another low-level Mad Monster Spawn, due to start on Tairen-4 in ten minutes. I did think of taking Kae herself to it, since she wasn't, in Velpist Temple, very far from the location - but it was a different sub-server, so I had to log out anyway, so I decided to take RedRyder instead, feeling that at level 29 she was high enough to be at no great risk, from the way previous low-level MMS events had gone...and she is the one with the mount, to supply horse buffs. Just in case, I did activate the first of Red's beginner-type resurrection scrolls, though.

Red had the "Junior MMS" location on her conventional memory scroll, so teleported there - and who should she discover among the half dozen or so people waiting but our old friend the knight Ratel, in his Tairen incarnation. We formed a party, though the only other person who wanted to join was a titan called ForSakenSoal, who we soon discovered was level one. Full marks for bravery, I think! That's titans for you, they just don't know the meaning of the word "fear"...and are a bit hazy about how to spell it, too.

When the monsters spawned, Ratel bravely dashed to the fore - even in the early twenties a knight's armour is pretty good, after all...only to discover that that bloated fat boss spider Baal was among the monsters spawned in that direction, with its potent magic attack. So, Ratel died; I expect he used one of the beginner resurrection scrolls, because he was soon back in action. Our titan didn't last long either, but was soon back with us. Not in time for much fighting, so in all he only went up about three levels, mainly from local great horn beasts Ratel and I killed before and after the monster spawning.

There were butchers and pilferers and gnolls and elite goblin scouts, plus salamanders and much more; I remembered that RedRyder is meant to be skill point farming so didn't attack all that many red-name types, so only added 0.86%, thankfully, along with 2 skill points. It was lucky I was in a party to dilute any experience gain. When the monsters were all defeated, the loot rewards were generous, with a second lot of hands spawned as we were gathering up the first lot. Unfortunately the spawning always produces a "lag spike", and Ratel was lagged out for a minute, so didn't pick up as much loot as the rest of us, but hopefully he managed to get some stuff. He's now on Red's Friends list, as indeed is that titan.

Kaerella logged back in; I had been thinking of taking her out to fight a few ghouls in Prokion Temple, but then noticed that it was only about 15 or 20 minutes until my log-out time, so just headed back to Velpist Temple - and was able to get Kae up to level 17, so that in all this evening she had gone up by 674.75%, got her hatchling up to level 2, and earned around 300 skill points I think, though there are still a number of skills that aren't yet at their highest possible levels.

SirGalahad kept busy while all this was going on, of course. Despite a couple of occasions when some passer-by killed his death mask lancer, his horse should only be an hour or so away from starting its 36th and last level, by the time Gal's computer gets switched off tonight. He has earned an overnight rest, I think - though MistressDomino may do some selling of Red's newly-acquired loot...

SirFrancis Levels Up

The older computer had some new update to install when I switched it off last night, so it's just as well I wasn't attempting to leave SirGalahad at work, as a restart would probably have sneaked up on him later. Still, he started up again before breakfast, and kept going until after coffee, moving the horse on a bit more on its journey through level 33.

Aeria have revamped the Last Chaos "Loot Wheel", removing some of the booby-prize type possible wins, so that spinning the wheel for about a dollar, or 99 aeria points, is now a more tempting thing to do. And to celebrate, they announced that each account today would be allowed a free spin. Well, you need to spend your 99 aeria points, but in a few days you'll get a rebate of 100 of them, which seems a good deal to me. It is generous of them to make it "one per account", rather than cautioning players with multiple accounts only to play once... and I wasted little time in taking advantage of their generosity. Sadly, I didn't hit the grand prize, which was a polar bear pet, but there were some nice other possibilities now, and I now have a bit more item mall stuff over on Tairen than I did before.

After coffee, Rage headed for Tairen-1's Prokion Temple, though I got delayed a bit with helping a new Singapore-based healer, Janie, to get to Jajan in Dratan to claim her dragon hatchling, and trying to give a few tips about the game. RedRyder joined Rage once she was in the Temple, for a bit of Combat-type party teaming. A level 21 titan called NightWarrior managed to get a few free small health potions from me, though when he asked for money I suggested that the orcs were a better source - or that he should do the quests available in Randol, and get Lorraine to open his "event" treasure chests, which ought to cheer up his financial situation.

Rage fought orc soldiers and orc fighters, which despite the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff didn't give a huge amount of experience, but kept to a reasonable ratio of skill exp to experience. As the non-fighting party member Red's experience gain was nicely lower, of course. By the end of the not very lengthy session Rage had gone up 12.73%, 94 skill points and 72 guild points, while RedRyder was up by just 3.17%, 90 skill points, and 12 guild points. Discipline's guild point total had topped 6,000 yesterday, so SirGalahad was now able to get the "Guild Notice" skill. The next thing to get will be the first level of "Expension of the number of guild member", for which a further 2,000 guild points will be needed, as well as some gold.

Just before lunch I remembered to transfer some more quality stones across from Rage to SirGalahad, to keep his horse fed, and then Gal went back to Maargadum Jail. He stayed there slightly longer than the usual lunch break, which allowed the horse to reach level 34 before Gal logged out again, and RedRyder logged back in, to join Rage back in Prokion Temple once more.

NightWarrior was around again, and on the cadge; I let him have a +1 level 27 titan helmet Rage was carrying, probably dropped by the elite sand golem, and I bought a couple of moonstone boxes he had picked up for 45,000 each, which is what I had sold some for recently. I didn't give him any gold, though, he ought to be able to earn it for himself by the time he's added a few levels in the Temple.

I managed to get Rage to level 32 before the end of the session; she went up by 17.94% in all, and after she levelled up the skill exp to experience ratio for the orc axemen seemed almost as good as for orc fighters, so perhaps I need to find a new spot that mixes those two types. She added 135 skill points; back in Randol almost all her stash of sp got spent on learning all five levels of the passive skill Sharpen, which increases her chance of making a critical hit, which hurts a monster twice as much as an ordinary blow. Rage added 105 more guild points too. RedRyder, meanwhile, had added 5.38%, 134 skill points, and 20 guild points.

SirGalahad headed back to Maargadum Jail's fifth level for the food break and beyond. The room actually got pretty busy for a while, with the titan moonwalker89 joined by a rogue called buttugly, who was even able to take down the beast crawlers without any great effort. Gal stayed there for the evening session, while Kaerella logged in over on Cariae-1, with the elite akane giant in mind.

And that's how the evening passed. I found someone listed as wanting a party, and we started our own, which bluray joined later - he left just before I did, in the end. The session was so long I had to return to Randol to get the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff re-applied; Kamira snubbed me, I'm afraid, and didn't appear, but Kae added 26.45%, and gained exactly 200 skill points. And Kaerella's drake, SirFrancis, at last reached level 48, having added 2403 pet points, so that was a bit of a milestone. A lot of akane giants perished over the course of the evening, and the elite akane giant died a lot, though he only dropped one good item, a +4 crossbow. There were a couple of heaven stones, and plenty of moonstone boxes, but as usual there the most common drops were haste potions and small healing pots, Kae will have to get rid of those as a big stack of such things, even if they only weigh 3 each, can get a bit heavy.

SirGalahad kept busy on Tairen-1 meanwhile, getting the horse past the halfway point in level 34. There are still a few more days to go, but it won't be too long before both my Tairen rogues have level 37 mounts, it seems.

A Rash Impulse

I did try to leave SirGalahad pet-levelling overnight, and MistressDomino in merchant mode too, but at some point both computers got a Microsoft update to install, and thus needed to restart, so things came to a halt. Still, Gal had managed a good few hours by then, and MD had sold quite a few heaven stones and other things, so that before breakfast I was able to transfer 31 million in gold across to Rage, before SirGalahad once again headed for Maargadum Jail, and his friend the death mask lancer.

This was always going to be a busy day for me, but the busy part didn't begin until a little after mid-morning, so Rage was able to log back in shortly before coffee, and check out Roy's merchant mart for an affordable but better level 33 weapon. The best I could find was a +14 mage staff being offered by Querion, who seems to be quite a busy buyer and seller, at 19 million, so I took a deep breath and bought that, then spent another 95,000 for Collector Ryl to convert it into a rogue's crossbow. The only other expense was a further 5,000 to buy five bloodseal gems for it.

So, with Rage's physical offence stat increased from 386 to 453, there was time to finish off a few quests, since Rage doesn't intend to stick on level 31 - if she does do any Misty Canyon runs, it will be at level 32, so that the new skills she can learn at that level get finished first. There were a couple of old minor quests to finish by running around Juno, and then some quest rewards in Dratan City - followed by slaying death goddesses in the middle of the desert. There was another quest that needed silvery fur dropped by silver foxes of the desert, who were conveniently next to the death goddesses, but though I killed quite a few of them, I didn't get a single scrap of fur dropped. Over near Prokion Temple there were some desert spiders to kill - and then it was time to head back to town to claim my rewards.

In all, Rage went up 35.25%, mainly from quest rewards, and gained 110 skill points. She had spent quite a few skill points earlier in Randol, but it seems a good idea to hang on to this new bunch until level 32 is reached, so that the aforementioned level 32 skills can be started on as soon as possible.

That was all I had time for then. SirGalahad kept busy, with level 32 reached in the morning by his horse; knightofhonor was down there for a while, with the usual Combat party to boost his experience gain a little. I managed to log MistressDomino back in, and she did some more selling. The price she sold heaven stones at gradually moved up, with 750k followed by 795k, 825k, and a last batch at 845k, and she ended her stint rather richer than she started out.

A message came up that a Parade was about to be held on Auzura-4 at four o'clock, UK time, so as I'd finished most of my work, MistressDomino logged out of Tairen-1, and Kaerella, my level 67 archer, logged in on Auzura-4. There was the usual dropping of firecrackers and various transformation scrolls by [GM]Noboru, and I transformed into a jaguar, and then, for the first time, into a drake. It's strange, when they aren't moving forward, players transformed into drakes seem to "freeze" in place, with their wings unmoving; but if you're doing it yourself, on your own screen the wings continue to flap.

I didn't quite stay to the end, as a level 5 titan called Ncwerk had decided to form a party with me, and he wanted a little assistance, being new to the game. So, I had to take him out to the energy stones and help him to do the energy collection level 5 quest there, and try to explain various things about the game. I don't play all that much on Auzura so didn't really feel qualified to become his Guardian, but I gave him a drake egg, and helped him get to Jajan; we went outside the town so that he could see his new hatchling. I gave him a few quality stones, and some small health potions, but I'll leave it to his Guardian, if he enrols, to part with any actual gold.

So, the food break's start was slightly delayed. SirGalahad kept going, though, and his horse reached level 33 at around six.

It seemed time that my cleric Kaerella over on Cariae-1 had another outing, so she had the evening session - and it was a pretty varied one, though let down by a sudden impulse to try something that turned out to be way too hard, which cost a resurrection scroll. Kae had a number of new quests to do, ones only recently added to the game mainly, so instead of heading out to the akane giants straight away, I had a checklist of monsters to visit - giant larvae (level 50) and Cerebrii (51) down in south-east Merac, and the rough jaguar of desert (51) and ravenous larvae (54) in Dratan's desert. It was quite a long journey south from Dratan City to reach the larvae and jaguars, south of the Forgotten Temple - and just when I was nearly there I had a disconnection, which was annoying.

Still, after getting SirGalahad back to work, I got Kaerella back down there. Luckily the rough jaguars weren't protective, in the way the level 8 ones in Juno are, so it was easy enough to get the quest items from them - and the ravenous larvae were right next door. so the actual fighting didn't take long. I memorised the spot, as the ravenous larvae might well replace the akane giants as Kae's adversary of choice in a level or two.

Even though they weren't as high level, the giant larvae in Merac seemed more aggressive - and the cerebrii, which are protective and have a magic attack, did Kae some real damage a time or two. I was also a little distracted as Ratel was chatting to me by then, it's a long time since we talked, it seemed to me, so it's good to know that he is still able to play, and having fun. Coincidentally he too had been surprised by a different level of experience/skill exp loss from what he had been expecting, so with my new-found knowledge I was able to assure him that the penalties had always been higher at lower levels. After a few minutes of action, those monsters got crossed off my list too - and then back in Merac village I had another quest I'd not previously noticed, to venture down into Maargadum Jail.

So, for a few minutes I had characters active on the fifth level of Maargadum Jail on both Tairen-1 (with SirGalahad pet-levelling there) and Cariae-1, with Kae killing a few death mask soldiers to get her quest items. The only problem was that on the way down I'd picked up another quest from the guard on level two - and that required me to kill the Jail's boss, the Death Knight of Iris.

Common sense told me that was a bad idea, with his strong area-of-effect magic attack, but foolishly, encouraged by the ease with which the death mask soldiers had died, and with horse buffs still active, and Kae's own anti-magic buff applied, I went on into the Jail's final room - and it didn't take the Death Knight very long at all to kill me. I don't think I'll be trying to finish that quest again, it would be safer to let the quest expire than to have poor Kae expire again. A level 12 magic defence mineral might be an option, but those are probably more valuable than the quest reward, and success still wouldn't be guaranteed.

Well, the last of the quest rewards were claimed, so that, including the various bits of fighting, Kaerella had gone up by 13.58% and 68 skill points, along with just 61 pet points - and then it was time for a more predictable bit of farming, with a trip out to the akane giants.

There hadn't been a party available earlier, but bluray had got one going now, so I was able to join that - and who should join it later than an old Norcaine member, Stanislav, on a level 90 character called ArCh3r. He told me that he has a level 53 titan as well, and I was able to assure him that I was still in Norcaine, and that Elvastar/Ratel was still playing too. I seemed to do a lot of chatting with a level 27 player, Chola, who had only recently returned to the game - so that the information about the free level 33 weapons and 30/32 armour set was, well, news to him.

I left the party for a few minutes when a low-level Mad Monster Spawn on Cariae-4 was announced; I was a bit late changing over, actually, and by the time my level 27 rogue Karella had rode out there, the event was almost finished. Still, Karella was in time to pick up some of the generous spawning of loot that the GM, presumably JediMike, provided. It was only a single wave of monsters, I think, and there was no word of any higher-level MMS event to follow, so Kae returned to her party on Cariae-1. While she didn't get any further announcements, SirGalahad got a notice about a low-level MMS on Tairen-4 - but unfortunately I didn't spot it on his screen in time.

Kaerella's session ended a little abruptly and early, as Kamira finally decided to put in an appearance at just gone ten past nine, UK time. By then Kae had added a further 10.04%, so is almost a third of the way through level 52 now, along with another 76 skill points, and 872 pet points. On the loot side, she picked up a heaven stone dropped by one akane giant - and the next one she killed dropped another. There was a third, as part of a Hand of the Warrior, not long after, too. Which makes up for having to use that resurrection scroll, I guess.

Keerella, my mage, teleported out to deal with Kamira, and did so easily, getting all the usual goodies but no rare accessory. Her inventory is so full she had to drop a medal of honour to make room for the (rather ordinary) necklace that was dropped, but I don't want her to spend much time in town transferring items to a different character, as she has the "Christmas Cheer" buff still running, and it would be useful if that lasted for a few more meetings with Kammy. And that seemed a suitable point at which to end the day's excitements, just leaving SirGalahad to go on until close-down; by then the horse ought, I think, to be halfway through level 33.